As we all know, we all descended from pirates. But what came before pirates? Recently at a Scandinavian festival, the truth came to me. People out of pirates, pirates out of vikings! They share many traits, such as scarce bathing, raiding small coastal towns , drinking a lot and general awesomeness. Pirates swore a lot, and as some of you might know, many english swear words, like shit and ass to mention a few, originally were Scandinavian words. I even once saw a guy wearing an FSM shirt and a viking hat.

Plus, look at techno viking.

"I would think the power of christ would at least come with a built-in spellchecker." -Travis Waldera

I see your reasoning, and on the surface it has merit. However the Gospel of the FSM tells us pirates have always been around.

I postulate that vikings were instead an evolutionary offshoot of the pirate. This is supported by the fact that most of the viking population were involved in looting and pillaging, and Scandanavia is cold - cause: effect.

Davros, Attorney and Pieces of LawKeeping up appearances is a very important activity in religion; in fact, maintaining tattered illusions is its main activity. - Richard Wade, on Friendlyatheist.comWe make an idol of our fear and call it God. -Ingmar Bergman, The Seventh Seal

Silly noobling. Pirate : generic as Viking : specific. One could generically say they are in the military without necessarily specifying which branch. There are Vikings (rape and pillage), Carribean Pirates (gold, slaves, warmer weather), Butt Pirates (another kind of booty), Somalian Pirates (rice, boats full of no-name brand cheap products, old computers), Software and Media Pirates (pre-release cam videos of movies in theaters now, expensive software cracked and released for free), the list never ends.

This thread seems to be wandering away from its original subject. The most casual observer can easily see the intent of the OP (followed nicely by the first few replies) was to have a discussion about people and things vaguely related to pirates, that begin with the letter "V". I see Vikings, Vandals, and Victorian myths. Vikings were vicious, as I'm sure you all remember, and usually victorious in their raids. They succeeded in establishing the colony of Vinland (now Iceland) by settling various viable villages. When they died, they looked forward to Valhalla.

I'm afraid I'm not very familiar with the Vandals. Perhaps someone else can give a brief synopsis.

"Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens."("Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain.")-- Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805)Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.-- Philip K DickOK, now let's look at four dimensions on the blackboard.-- Dr. JoyEnglish isn't much of a language for swearing. When I studied Ancient Greek I was delighted to discover a single word - Rhaphanidosthai - which translates roughly as "Be thou thrust up the fundament with a radish for adultery."

ET, the Extra Terrestrial wrote:This thread seems to be wandering away from its original subject. The most casual observer can easily see the intent of the OP (followed nicely by the first few replies) was to have a discussion about people and things vaguely related to pirates, that begin with the letter "V". I see Vikings, Vandals, and Victorian myths. Vikings were vicious, as I'm sure you all remember, and usually victorious in their raids. They succeeded in establishing the colony of Vinland (now Iceland) by settling various viable villages. When they died, they looked forward to Valhalla.

ET, the Extra Terrestrial wrote:I'm afraid I'm not very familiar with the Vandals. Perhaps someone else can give a brief synopsis.

I'm looking into it…

Vandals were allied to Visigoths. They may have lived in Vendel (Sweden) by the shores of lake Vanërn? or Vendsyssel (Denmark). They once had a king called Visimar. They were vicious, vagrant, vagabonds during the reigns of the Roman emperors Valens, Valerian and Valentinian III. They may have drunk Valpolicella when vandalising valuable vinyards during the valise* of Rome.